The Substance (9/10)

Watched this in theaters a while back with Doctor Cousin and completely forgot to write about it! I was cleaning up the file I use for entry drafts and saw my notes for the movie, so I took that as a sign to make a post.

I’d actually never heard of this movie until Doctor Cousin asked me if I was interested in catching it while it was still showing. A quick internet search later—a horror movie! Yay!—and I was coordinating schedules with her. I miss watching horror movies on the big screen, y’all. Truly a different experience.

The movie is, to quote from Wikipedia, about the “societal pressures on women’s bodies and aging” with the associated fear and anxiety cranked up to 100 then mixed with a lot of blood and grotesque imagery. Definitely skip it if you’re not a fan of gore or needles. I’ve got a high-ish tolerance for gore thanks to Saw, but the needles stressed me out.

( Cut for length and mild spoilers. )

Random stuff:

• Both surprised and unsurprised to find out that the director for this—Coralie Fargeat—was also behind Revenge. Fargeat has a very distinct visual flair, I think.
• Dennis Quaid’s extreme close-ups while he pissed and while he annihilated shrimp were far more disturbing to me than any of the gore scenes.